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Beijing is failing to win hearts and minds

It has now been two years since China passed its "Anti-Secession" Law. It is worth taking a look back to investigate whether cross-strait relations during that time have moved in the direction of positive development, or if China and Taiwan are gradually drifting further apart.

In a recent survey, Taiwan Thinktank found that 73.9 percent of Taiwanese believe that China's enactment of the law constitutes a hostile intent toward Taiwan's government and people. In addition, 80 percent believe the law does not serve the interests of Taiwanese.

In addition to being designed to satisfy China's internal pressures and needs, the law was intended to give China the upper hand in cross-strait relations. Beijing officials hoped the law would divide the Taiwanese population, strengthen the legitimacy of military action, make its policies toward Taiwan appear more palatable and weaken Taiwan's position.

However, judging by the results of the survey, China not only failed to achieve those goals but even engendered the opposite by hardening cross-strait opposition.

The survey shows that 80 percent of Taiwanese do not accept the view that Taiwan must necessarily unify with China, as the law stipulates. In addition, 67 percent do not approve of China's strategy of only having contacts with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) while snubbing the nation's elected government.

Beijing's attempt to use legalese to divide Taiwanese has had the opposite effect of consolidating opposition to Beijing's views. And in terms of lending legitimacy to the use of force against Taiwan, 90 percent of respondents do not agree with the law's advocacy of "non-peaceful means" to resolve the cross-strait issue.

The survey shows that almost 79 percent of Taiwanese believe their country's future should be decided by the Taiwanese themselves, whereas only 15 percent advocate a decision in conjunction with the Chinese.

Eighty-two percent, meanwhile, believe that China has no right to interfere in Taiwan's internal affairs. Furthermore, an increasing number of Taiwanese -- almost 77 percent -- approve joining the UN under the name Taiwan.

This survey proves that Beijing's policy of winning the hearts and minds is failing.

Lo Chih-cheng is the director of the political science department at Soochow University.

Translated by Marc Langer
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